Project Outline
After a website redesign involving substantial user research with IDEO, Boston.gov wanted to keep momentum up. They already had a few services online and started with services related to payments in order to make the process easier. Next, they wanted to expand to certificates and a logged-in area that would include all the services related to you as a citizen of the City of Boston.
Boston.gov
Case Study
Role
Information Architecture
Art/Creative Direction
UX/UI Design
Tools
Figma | Miro
Discovery
Where does Boston.gov stand?
A competitive analysis was performed to get a better idea of where other cities were falling short, or succeeding. This analysis helped prioritize the features that would help with the new logged-in experience that would be built, including information flow and structure. The design aesthetic that IDEO created already placed Boston.gov far ahead of similar cities in terms of layout and usability.
Understanding Government Website Use
The goal of building out the logged-in experience that Boston.gov wants to establish is to understand how users are interacting with their website and service offerings. It will be important to map out flows and present information in a way that allows users to accomplish their tasks quickly and efficiently, and with as little confusion as possible.
Working within the IDEO design system allowed for a clear focus on the architecture of the site and the hundreds of pages involved in requesting a service or document.
Distinguishing Interactions
A deep look at how user tasks/flows are bing handled in the current structure of the website became a paramount need in order to process how to provide a clean experience to a logged in user. How are simple tasks managed? How is information presented in different areas of the site? Do the flows have similarities in the way they are being explained and shown visually? These discoveries will help establish the approach to building the new dashboard experience.
Creating New Flows
With a better understanding of how information should be structured, and where improvements could be made, low-fidelity examples of task/user flows were constructed to map out the processes based on the research and discovery.
Explore + Define
Establishing User Needs
A preliminary persona was constructed and was built into a Journey Map that provided a full view of a task flow scenario. This allowed the initial research to be applied to how the flow of information will occur when a user requests a service or document.
I need to be able to target my research about city documentation, so that I'm able to manage this task efficiently.
Problem Statement
Thinking as a user needing a birth certificate there is concern certain documentation that she doesn’t have access to. Users have often checked their local government website but couldn’t easily find what they were looking for. They need a list of required documents before proceeding.
Develop + Test
Information Architecture
With so many moving parts to performing a single task within a government website, the information architecture was paramount. Constructing a hierarchy of elements and showcasing common tasks was the main goal for creating a user experience that allows for easy use and convenience.
User Journey
Drafting how a user would accomplish a set task, including requesting a birth certificate, proved time consuming. But the process begins with urging users to sign up for, or log into, a user account, which would provide a more customized experience.
The account setup, user dashboard and birth certificate request were all mapped out, end-to-end, to find gaps in how the the process moved the user along.
Testing
As the individual task flows were constructed, the high-fidelity prototype was built to allow usability testing so that any remaining process gaps could be closed and revisions could be made to tie up loose ends in task completion.
The feedback was compiled after testing was used to add or subtract features that were not adding to the seamless process. The user dashboard was also edited to capture user interactions that provided the most benefit and allowed important information to be easily accessed and saved for later use and organization.
Deliver
46%
increase in registrations
53%
increase in task efficiency
15%
decrease in abandonment
23%
adjusted increase in ROI
Learning & Looking Ahead
Working within an established design system provided a unique opportunity to focus on the real-life usability aspects of a user account that will have meaningful impact on the way a government website is used. With more of the worlds services and requests moving to online systems, it’s more important than ever to consider the user experience for tasks such as requesting a birth certificate or paying a parking ticket.
With continued focus, the logged-in experience on Boston.gov will continue to serve the evolving needs of their user base, while also providing valuable data to the City of Boston that will help usher their website into future decades.